


Ring Around the Roses

by Orrrrrganic_siiiiiracha



Series: We All Fall Down [1]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Chan lost like all his braincells, Everyone has magic, Except Woojin but don't worry he's special in other ways ;), Felix is Bullied, Fox Jeongin, Human Felix, Human Kim Seungmin, Human Seo Changbin, M/M, Minho is realllly old, Multi, Otter Hyunjin, Spirit Minho, The Aperion as Corrupt Church, angst crack and fluff all rolled into one messy ball, human chan, human woojin, society in the villages is run by the Aperion, squirrel jisung, the forest is magical, woojin is worried, yes there is school in this old magical forest-worshipping universe, you'll get an explanation for that eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 14:12:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21495592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orrrrrganic_siiiiiracha/pseuds/Orrrrrganic_siiiiiracha
Summary: As the universe and the worlds inside of it were being crafted, so too was nature, and it was given a body in the form of the forest. Hundreds of years prior to the events of this series, the forest was attacked. The humans had become aware of the immense amount of power it held and succumbed to jealousy, they turned and cut, cut out everything. The spirits begged them to stop, but foolish as they were, the humans didn't listen, they continued to cut. The spirits had no choice but to fight back, but unaccustomed to the sheer anger of humanity, all were killed, all except one child. Being so young in the scheme of the universe the child had fled, regressing back into the forest and leaving his physical body behind. It was then that the universe struck, and the universe killed. In the remains was left a large, seemingly perfect circle cut in the center of the forest..and the child. That was it. The universe then crafted a new seed of humanity, ones that were also gifted with magic, thus avoiding another war, and the child was bestowed the remains of the forest's life.A thousand years later humanity has begun to reflect the anger of their ancestors, and the child, now an ancient spirit, must protect the forest yet again.
Relationships: Bang Chan/Kim Woojin, Bang Yedam/Yang Jeongin | I.N, Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Hwang Hyunjin/Kim Seungmin, Lee Felix/Seo Changbin
Series: We All Fall Down [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549351
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	Ring Around the Roses

**Author's Note:**

> Hey yall, this is the first fic I'm posting to archive so its probably gonna be a t a d bit rough, but I believe in it so hopefully you will too. Read the notes at the end of this chapter though cause I'm gonna explain a bit about how this work is set up. :)

Woojin was worried. Now don’t get him wrong, he does worry about a lot… like  _ a lot _ a lot, its an unnecessary amount of worrying really. Worried about his plants growing, worried about the weather, worried about the customers that come into his shop, he worries over the temperature of his tea and over the stray cat that lives under his porch, and he always  _ always  _ worries about that cute blond that comes barreling through his shop doors at exactly noon every friday. Not that he’s keeping track.

‘Where’s he going? Why is he buying so many herbs? Why does he have such bad dark circles under his eyes? Does he need more sleep? Are the herbs for his sleep? Should I offer to sleep with him to help out? No don’t do that, bad Woojin.

Sadly, this is only a sample of how much worrying Woojin partakes in daily; and with all this worrying it should come as no surprise that he is, once again, fretting over some trivial matter. Except this time, cross his heart and hope his head turns into a herb, it doesn't  _ feel _ trivial..

See since the day he was born Woojin was quite special: he had absolutely no magical abilities. In a town where every child was born with at least a small portion of magic, having absolutely nothing was unheard of. He was outcasted by society and believed to be shunned by the spirit of the forest itself, as much as his family tried to hide him, the Aperion eventually found out and as soon as he hit puberty, he was banished into the forest.

The forest, as Woojin was taught, was a divine being that resides under the branches of the trees that surrounds their town, it was responsible for protecting the balance between humanity and nature, so the townspeople revered it and respected the blessings of nature that were given to them. Despite this love for nature, the forest itself was still viewed quite cautiously, they were wary of its extremely powerful aura. No one knows for sure where this energy comes from and since it is so overpowering no human can tolerate going inside for more than a few minutes. This of course means no one has been able to venture inside, not for hundreds of years, at least no one that has ventured inside has ever returned to tell of their findings.. However, after his banishment, Woojin was astonished to find that the forest had absolutely no effect on him. He assumed that because he was born without any abilities and his body has no reserve of magic inside of it, there was nowhere inside him for the forest’s energy to go. He was completely immune. 

What had proven to be a curse as a child wound up saving him as he grew up. He was able to make a special connection to the forest and the creatures within, he took time to learn about all the plants and their values and ended up building himself a small shop with a little garden right at the edge of the forest in what the humans have dubbed “the outskirts”. He was content with his solitary life, him and his store and his plants, no more than one or two stray customers a week but that was to be expected, it was the outskirts after all. That’s perfectly fine with Woojin, he built the place with the intention of picking up a hobby, not with the hope of finding friends. At least that was his intention. Before Chan.

Chan was different. He had blond hair and a big smile that seemed to be permanently tattooed on his face. He had kind eyes but calloused hands that would sometimes brush against Woojins own, sending shivers down his spine. He had a muscular build and a gentle voice that seemed to sweep Woojin’s worry away. He was different, and Woojin liked that. 

Cue Woojin’s current worry: Chan. The last couple weeks the forest’s energy has been growing stronger. Woojin can’t directly feel it, but he can tell from the way his plants grow stronger, how the creatures come out more, how the green in the trees seem to glow brighter. He can also see it in Chan, the boy visits his store at exactly noon every friday, always bubbly despite the dark circles under his eyes, always making a point to compliment Woojin on his impressive array of roses; he buys a different color every week. Recently though, his energy’s been slowly dropping, the dark circles grow darker, his smile seems a bit more forced, his blond hair more disheilved. 

_ DING. _

The little doorbell Woojin installed a few weeks ago chimes once, he’d originally made it because he liked the sound of bells, having lived right next to the town’s church as a child, and he hadn’t had a chance to hear them again since he was banished. Lately he finds himself giddy with excitement, not at the sound, but because it most likely means Chan is the one who triggered it. 

Woojin immediately reacts to the bell, rushing from his back garden to the front door to greet the blonde boy.  _ “ _ Oh Chan is that you? Hold on I’m coming, the stupid squirrel was giving me a hard time again but I finally chased him off the flower beds.” He wipes his hands on his trousers and scurries from the back garden to the front counter where he usually greets chan. 

“You’re here a lot later than usual, I was kinda worried you wouldn’t stop by today. Is everything alright-- Chan?!” Woojin, who finally made it to the front of the store, all but catapults himself over the counter to reach Chan who has just face planted from the welcome mat directly into a bowl of fig-like fruits next to the door. It would be comical if Woojin weren’t so absolutely terrified right now. He’s never been good in stressful situations.

“Chan? Oh my god are you ok? Can you hear me?” Woojin rolls the boy out of the mess of fruit juice he made on the floor, and starts frantically patting him all over, as if he’d be able to find an injury by smacking Chan like he smacks his fruits to check for bruises.

“Hmmghh” Chan groans and rolls over, right back into the fruit. He clutches a fig in one hand and his head in the other.

“Wooj, meh head hurmts” Chan starts rubbing the fig against his head in an attempt to massage it. 

“Chan let go of the fig” Woojin makes a grab for the fruit but Chan, who seems very upset at the thought of losing his precious fruit, tucks it into his shirt and starts rolling to the counter in an attempt to ‘run’ away.

To say Woojin is surprised would be an understatement. Chan is usually so calm and collected, mature and kind, he had never  _ ever _ expected to see him literally rolling back and forth across the floors of his shop. Woojin is so surprised he just kinda stands there for a few minutes watching as Chan rolls around, he only snaps out of it once the boy starts knocking into furniture.

“No chan. Bad. Stop rolling. What if you hit your head, it’s just going to make it hurt worse. Oh my lord don’t roll  _ faster. _ ” Chan, who seems to have absolutely no fear of further injury, stops dead in his tracks and stares intensely into Woojin’s eyes.

“Don’t care, my fig” He sticks his tongue out, headache seemingly forgotten, and rolls at top speed away from Woojin. 

_ CLANG _

Woojin sighs, gets up, and walks over to the counter where Chan appears to have steamrolled himself right between its metal bars. He’s making very sad attempts to roll himself out from between it, but to no avail. His right arm, which still clutches the fig, is twisted up in the metal framework at the base of the counter and gosh darn it he’s really not going to drop that damn fig for the life of him is he? Finally having enough of the fig fiasco, he grabs it right out of Chan’s hand and flings it out the still-open door. Chan  _ screams _ . He’s not taking the loss very well, as expected. In fact, he’s reacting quite like a 5 year old would.

“NOOOO, Woojinie whyyy that fig was mine and you just threw it away. How could you?” He’s throwing as much of a tantrum as is possible for a grown man pinned under a metal counter, legs kicking out dangerously close to Woojin’s shins and cheeks puffing out in a huffy, ‘I’m mad at you but I don’t have the brain power to come up with an argument so I'm just going to sit here and  _ look _ at you’, kinda way.

At this point Woojin is about half a second away from throwing all caution to the wind and marching right back into town with Chan on his back to find the boy some medical help, banishment be damned. He was obviously suffering and Woojin wasn’t about to let this man child loose his last brain cell to whatever disease was eating them. He snaps out of his fog of worrying and focuses back on Chan who is currently hugging the leg of the counter and patting pathetically at the metal his hand is caught up in. Woojin sighs and bends down to help him.

“Chan stop pulling on your hand you’ll hurt yourself more. I’m sorry about your fig but that one wasn’t good, I had to throw it out. I have plenty more figs in the garden if you want another but you’ll have to get up and come with me.” Chan thinks about this and seems to accept the answer solely on the promise of more figs. He then attempts to get up from under the counter, succeeding in banging his head and pulling on his wrist. 

“Ouch! Woojinnie the counter won’t let me go  _ and _ it hit me, tell it to stop being so mean.” Woojin considers just leaving Chan under the counter till he snaps out of this funk but then takes a look at the sad puppy dog eyes he’s giving him and immediately yields.

“Uhh, ya you counter um stop being mean?” He looks to the blonde boy for confirmation but only receives a hand waggle, urging him to continue the counter’s lecture. 

“Uh s-stop hurting Chan, it isn’t good to hurt people.” Another hand waggle. Woojin will have to commit to this lecture. He’s pulling out the big guns.

“Counter” He shifts all his weight onto his right leg, juts his hip out, places his hand on his waist, and uses the other to wave a reprimanding finger at the counter. 

“I’m extremely disappointed in the way you are behaving, if you hit Channie again I’ll have no choice but to take away your.. um I’ll take away your” Shit what is he supposed to take away from an inanimate object.

“He’ll take away ALL your figs!” Chan yells, sticking his tongue out and shoving weakly at its metal feet.

“Yeah that. I’ll take away every single one.” Chan seems to finally be appeased and Woojin thanks whatever spirit is out there for ending his torture.

“Alright Channie I think it’s time to go find another fig, come on”

“Can't. Counter still hasn’t let go of me” Woojin looks down at Chan’s wrist which has somehow gotten pushed further into the metal framework, and then looks at Chan and his cute, fluffy, blond hair completely messed up from rolling around on the floor and his adorable pout and decides that maybe he really doesn’t hate this version of Chan all that much. Even so, he’s gotta get this boy some help and getting him out from under the counter seems like a good place to start. 

Woojin squats down, bends over Chan, and makes an attempt to reach for his right hand, but the boy is completely stretched out, long legs fully extended and left arm outstretched in an attempt to grab at Woojin’s shoelace, making it a real challenge for Woojin to reach the other side of Chan’s body.

“Chan I need you to curl up a bit so I can reach your hand.” He pats Chan’s legs and the blonde pulls them up to his knees, curling his free hand around them and rocking in a little ball. Woojin shuffles himself a bit closer, knees brushing up against Chan’s, and leans over his chest to grab at the metal. He’s too worried about freeing the hand to notice that Chan has stopped rocking and is now staring intently at the spot where their hands meet, where Woojin has ever so carefully wrapped his hand around Chan’s wrist, pointer finger pressing into his palm in order to guide his hand through the mess of metal it’s caught in. The hand finally,  _ finally  _ pops free and Woojin leans back, a satisfied grin on his face as he turns to pull Chan up.

“Ah Hah! Here we go, the counter has finally given up and released your hand. Now let’s go back to the garden to find you a new fig and wrap your wrist, then we can try to figure out what’s going on with you.” As he talks Woojin shifts on his knees to face Chan who is still frozen in his position on the floor, still staring at his hand. Woojin starts to worry.

“Chan are you ok? Is there something wrong with your wrist? Do you want me to-” At this moment Chan leans forward, seemingly in slow motion, and wraps his hands around Woojin's, intertwining their fingers, and stares at them again. For quite a bit of time the two of them are frozen like that, neither quite knowing what to do but not necessarily uncomfortable with the contact. Then Chan’s eyes shift to meet the older’s. 

Woojin exhales sharply. There’s something behind the boy’s gaze that wasn’t present before. Some intensity that makes him shiver. God damn it his hands are shaking aren’t they. Chan can definitely feel that. Chan does, in fact, feel the tremors, and decides somewhere in the haziness of his current consciousness, that it was his job to comfort the other. So he drops Woojin’s hands and wraps his own around the boy’s back, pressing his head into his neck and breathing in the scent of flowers that always surrounds him.

Woojin stiffens. It’s not that he doesn’t enjoy being this close to the blonde, it’s just that it was so unexpected, he didn’t have any time to plan for this. What if he smells bad from working in the garden, what if Chan just passed out again and is using Woojin’s body as a makeshift bed, that would make this hug completely non-consensual. Oh  _ god _ Woojin would never want to take advantage of him, maybe he should just shove him off and lock himself in the kitchen to avoid confrontation. Yeah that's a solid plan, good idea Woojin you’re an absolute genius.

Just as Woojin shifts his body to slide out from Chan’s grasp, he hears him sniff, and Woojin melts. For once he lets all his doubts and worries melt away and just returns the embrace. He winds his arms around Chan’s shoulders, swaying them back and forth for a few minutes before pulling back to wipe the tears off his cheeks. Both of them comforting the other, neither understanding why this felt so right.

  
  


After the hug Woojin led Chan to the back half of his cabin where his living room, kitchen, and bedroom were located. He sat Chan down on the couch, wrapped his wrist up in a thin layer of bandages, and moved them to his garden to pick a couple of figs. After that they simply sat on one of the benches in silence, listening to the sounds of the forest and enjoying the slight breeze. Woojin munched on his fruit quietly while Chan came back around from his illness, swinging his legs and humming a gentle tune he remembers his church’s choir used to sing. It was a soft but old hymn that Woojin had fallen in love with as a child; he remembers singing it over and over, so much so that his mom would start yelling at him whenever he’d hum it. Never out of anger of course, it was loving; “Woojin you better learn a new song soon, you sing that one so much I’ll be humming it to my grave!” 

Woojin swallows, thoughts of his mom were always hard for him to handle, any of his family for that matter. That was the hardest part of his banishment, never knowing the fate of the relationships he left behind, clueless about their life and health. They could have died years ago and he’d have no way of finding out. 

“Let’s not go down that rabbit hole again” He mumbled to himself. He spared a glance back over to Chan and let out a tiny chuckle at the sight. The boy was leaning back on the bench, back supported by the large tree the bench was cut into, eyes closed, mouth open, and snoring softly. 

“What a baby, I can’t believe I thought you were mature.” Woojin tsk’d. He reaches over and swipes a stray strand of hair that got caught between his lips, hesitating slightly as the emotions from earlier swell in his chest again. He shakes the feelings away though, no reason to dwell on something as unrealistic as a new relationship. Woojin as come to terms with his solidarity. Him and his plants, just as it should be, as it will always be.

Even so, his fingers rest on Chan’s lips a little longer than necessary.  _ His lips are soft  _ Woojin thinks, He finds himself swiping his thumb across Chan’s lower lip a few times before the reality of what he’s doing sets in and he pulls his fingers back so fast someone would’ve thought Chan bit him. 

“Oh my god I’m an absolute creep”. Woojin mutters to himself as he jumps off the bench and paces back and forth smacking himself on the cheek and shaking his head a few times.  _ As soon as he wakes up I’m sending him out  _ Woojin reasoned with himself, turning to walk back inside before he’s stopped short by Chan who lets out a particularly loud snore. He takes in Chan’s sleeping form and notices how his nose seems to scrunch up ever so slightly, how his hands that are wrapped around his waist clench the fabric of his shirt just a tad too tightly,  _ Ok fine I guess you can stay tonight. _

***

The next morning Woojin wakes up with a stiff back and a sore neck, his couch was never the most comfortable thing but sleeping on it for 8 hours really brings out all its worst features. He’ll have to build a new one in his free time. He rolls off the couch and shuffles into his slippers, taking his time to walk around his cabin and do his morning routine; sweeping the store, checking the garden, making his breakfast, fixing his bed.  _ Oh _ , right, his bed. He shuffles his way through the hallway connecting the living room to his bedroom and swings the door open to check on Chan. The rickety old door opens with a loud squeak and Woojin swears under his breath, adding ‘bedroom door’ to his mental list of things that need fixing. He peeks through the crack he’s made and notices that Chan is still completely passed out, he lets out the breath he was subconsciously holding and closes the door as quietly as he can. 

_ He’ll be super hungry when he finally wakes up _ , Woojin thinks. So he scurries his way back to his small kitchen to make himself and Chan some breakfast. This space was probably his favorite in the cabin; he built it right next to the garden, and while it only had an oven, stove, and little table in it, he had decorated it with tens of potted plants. They littered the surface of the table and stove, and hung from the ceiling, plus he added a large window over his table, overlooking the garden. It made the room feel alive, relaxed him. He sets a kettle on the stove to boil some water for tea and grabs a skillet from the rack next to the table to make some eggs. After turning the heat up on both burners he sits down at his table and looks out the window while he waits. Well, that was the plan at least, but as soon as he sits down he sees that god damn squirrel, the same one who’s been tearing up his plants for the last month, come scurrying down from the large tree in the center of the garden. 

“Oh no, no no no, absolutely not. I  _ just _ replanted the mint two days ago”. Woojin pulls his robe on tighter, grabs his broom, and marches out with determination. He’s not about to let this squirrel win, not in his garden. He rushes outside and looks around for the furry little demon. He walks around the perimeter of the garden. Nothing. He walks through his section of flowers. Nothing. He walks up and down the rows of herbs. Still nothing.  _ I know you’re here, just come out so I can get back to my breakfast,  _ Just as soon as he’s ready to throw in the towel and head back to the kitchen, he looks up into the tree one last time and sees the squirrel. 

“HA! There you are! Don’t move a muscle or I swear I’ll cook you.” Woojin grips his broom tighter and marches over to the base of the tree, he lifts it up and over his head with the intention of hitting the squirrel and chasing it out of the garden but stops short when he notices how still the squirrel is. Never in his entire time living in the forest has Woojin seen any animal stand  _ that _ still, much less the exact animal he vividly remembers tearing up his plants all the time. He finds himself extremely unsettled by the lack of movement, the almost frozen state of the squirrel, but he has no idea what to do about it. He starts slowly reaching up for the lower branches and pulling himself into the tree; he stretches his hand out slowly, unable to break eye contact with the squirrel, but as soon as his fingers brush against its fur it takes off running. 

Woojin sighs, he’s an idiot, this whole thing was a stupid waste of time, and to make things worse his eggs are probably burnt now. He jumps down from the tree with the intention of heading back inside but spots the squirrel, frozen again, standing at the very edge of his garden. Woojin, against his better judgement, decides to walk over there and try talking to it. Yes, he actually tries  _ talking  _ to the thing, give him a break he’s had a very stressful week ok, plus he lost like 50% of his brain cells in the fig fiasco yesterday.

“Ok little guy if you want something just show me, I’m tired and this game of tag is really getting on my last nerve” Surprisingly, the squirrel seems to understand. Is Woojin losing it or is the little guy actually pointing towards the small path that leads deeper into the forest. Woojin takes a step closer and the squirrel takes one too, further up the path now. Ok yeah he is  _ actually _ waving his tiny squirrel hands in the direction of the path, as if he’s the landing crew and Woojin’s the plane.

“Fine I’ll follow you but not for long, I’m not getting stuck out here because of you” With that the squirrel takes off and Woojin has to run after it to keep up with it. Luckily the path they’re on is one that he is quite familiar with, having cut it out himself just over a year ago to make collecting wood and plants easier. The further they go the more Woojin starts to notice how  _ off _ the forest looks. If he thought everything was extra green before, then everything is blindingly green now. It’s so green the plants seem to glow with the color, it hurts his eyes to look at one for more than a few seconds. He keeps going though, determined to find out what the hell is going on with the forest, maybe it can help him find out what happened to Chan too. He keeps a tight eye on the squirrel and prays for this run to be over soon, he’s never had the best stamina and this is kicking his ass.

Just as he feels like he might actually pass out, he breaks into a clearing with a circle of nine tree stumps, the squirrel standing on one to the left of him and shaking his tail at another, like he’s telling Woojin to take a seat. Woojin doesn’t listen, he’s annoyed at the squirrel for making him run and decides instead to walk the perimeter of the circle of stumps and catch his breath. As he walks and starts to calm down a bit, he notices the plant life in this small clearing is suspiciously void of the color green, in fact, its void of every color. Everything appears to be a dull grey, like the life has bled out of it. Maybe Woojin would be more worried if he wasn’t sure that he just busted a lung. He goes to walk into the center of the tree stumps, but the squirrel shoots up from its place on the stump and grabs onto his pant leg, pulling on it and frantically gesticulating with its tiny hands. 

“What, what do you want now.” The squirrel hops off his leg and pats the tree stump closest to the path they came from, Woojin takes it as a sign to sit. So he does. He plops down and takes a few  _ more _ minutes to catch his breath. While he’s sitting there, wheezing and thinking about all the weird things that have happened to him this week, he hears leaves rustle and footsteps slam down from the other side of the circle. He snaps his head up in the direction of the noise and is absolutely and completely shocked to see a boy emerge from the thick of the bushes, another young boy on his back, and what appears to be a baby fox trailing behind them. He is even more shocked when he notices that the boy he’s carrying seems to be bleeding from a nasty looking wound in his side. 

“Hey are you guys ok!” Woojin stands up and shouts over to them. He’s never seen any other human venture within the boundaries of the forest, heck they barely go to the outskirts so what the living hell are these two boys doing here. Neither of them answer, he assumes that the one that’s bleeding must be unconscious since he doesn’t move a muscle as the first boy places him down on one of the tree stumps, but the other boy has obviously heard him and chooses not to answer. This pisses Woojin off if he’s being honest. They’ve both found themselves in this strange, dead, section of the forest and he wants to know why, that’s never going to happen if the other boy keeps ignoring him like he is. The fox seems to notice all of Woojin’s mumbling and looks between him and the first boy, choosing to ignore both of them and curl up on the stump to the right of the bleeding boy instead. The other kid walks over to the stump next to the squirrel and sits down. Just as Woojin moves to get up and confront the boy, he hears more rustling from the forest and another boy comes crashing out of the trees to the right of him. 

_ There are more?!  _ Woojin yells in his head, he has absolutely no idea what’s going on anymore, not that he had much of an idea to begin with but he  _ really _ has no idea now. The new boy, who had come barreling through the trees a few moments ago, stopped rather abruptly once he broke into the clearing. Woojin notices that he’s carrying something in his arms, a small wet lump, and looks to be rather worried about the lump. His eyes follow the boy as he places it on a tree stump two to the right of him, next to the fox, and crashes down on the one right next to that, eyes downcast and body slouched over. It also happens to be the one right next to Woojin. He feels like he should say something and break the thick silence that’s fallen over the strange group, but he has no clue what he would say.

As he’s thinking of a way to comfort the boy next to him, who looks like he’s about one second away from breaking down and sobbing, yet  _ another _ boy breaks through the trees, and unlike the rest, he is in no mood for silence.

“Alright motherfuckers I know one of you have him and I know what you did to him so just hand him over now and I  _ might _ consider sparing you” While this kid is definitely bulkier and looks like he could throw a solid punch, he’s obviously in no condition to be threatening any lives. In fact, he looks extremely pale, exhausted to the point where he might pass out any second. The guy who had been carrying the bleeding boy, Woojin really needs to get some names soon, stands up but makes no move to respond. He simply walks to the tree stump where the other boy is still unconscious, and places a hand on his shoulder. 

Everyone in the clearing is tense, even the animals seem uncomfortable. All eyes shift between the two boys, watching as the new kid huffs while the other places his hand on the bleeding boy. However the new kid’s expression quickly changes once he takes in in the state of the boy’s wound. The blood has stopped pooling out now but he looks no better, in fact, he looks as if he’s been electrocuted and all the energy burst out of his right side creating a nasty looking hole directly under his ribs. Black veins run up and along the exposed section of his torso where his shirt has been torn and they appear to stop just below his jaw. 

“Felix? Fe-” The kids eyes start watering and his voice cracks a bit as he speaks, all of the fiery temper he burst into the clearing with has drained out of him, he sounds broken now, his knees wobble and Woojin worries the boy might pass out on the spot. “Please just leave him alone, he doesn’t deserve any of this, he’s a good kid. P-please.” And finally,  _ finally _ , the first boy speaks.

“There are things going on right now that you don’t even possess the ability to comprehend, so if you want to see him alive I suggest you stop blabbing and wait in quiet like the rest of us. The last piece should show up any second now.”

_ The last piece?  _ Woojin wonders. He then takes a second to look around the circle of stumps and notices that there is in fact one stump left unoccupied. The fiery kid from before has taken the stump right next to the bleeding boy, Felix, Woojin thinks he remembers the other kid calling him, so the only one left now is between the first boy and the fiery boy. God help whoever has to sit between  _ that  _ tension. Woojin then allows his mind to wonder at that statement. Why is he calling us pieces and who could the "last piece" be. Another animal maybe? There are already three in the group unless that wet lump turns out to be a really,  _ really _ , small child. No most likely the last piece will be another young boy. All Woojin knows for sure is that whoever it is better hurry the heck up cause he needs to get back home and finish his breakf-.  _ Oh shit! The fucking stove!!  _

Woojin is panicked now. He forgot to turn the stove off before he went to chase off the squirrel. The house is probably burnt to the ground now. Oh god Woojin’s gonna have to build it from the ground up, it took him a whole year to get the materials necessary to build that cabin and it took a hell of a lot longer to actually build the damn thing. Woojin panics some more, where is he gonna sleep, how is he going to protect himself from nature, what is he going to tell Chan the next time the boy comes to buy herbs, ‘sorry I burnt them all, come back again next year’... wait. 

_ OH MY FUCKING GOD CHAN _

If Woojin was panicking before, he’s having a full blown attack right now. He shot straight up out of his seat and is now pacing back and forth behind his stump.  _ Oh my god I’ve killed Chan, there’s no way he could make it out of a burning house in the state he’s in right now. I’ve killed him, I’ve really killed him, I’ve burnt him down with my house and I won’t even have a body to give back to the family.  _ He knows everyone in the clearing is staring at him like he’s insane, even the damn squirrel is giving him the eyes, but he can’t bring himself to care, in his mind, he’s just killed the only person he’s come to care for since his banishment. He’s devastated to say the least. Just as Woojin turns around, ready to bolt back to his cabin to confirm his worst fears, he hears another set of footsteps come running from his path. He stops his pacing, spins around and comes face to face with the last person he expected to find out here.

“Chan?!” Woojin, in the span of a few milliseconds, scans the entirety of Chan’s body. One, to make sure he’s ok and that he has no physical wounds, and two, to make sure it’s actually him. Woojin still can’t bring himself to believe the second one, but as he takes in the singed tips of his blonde hair and the smudges of ash across his face, he finds no way to disprove it. This really is Chan, and he really is ok. He’s about to jump into the boy’s arms and swallow him in a hug when the first boy stands up from his stump next to the squirrel and speaks again.

“Ah perfect, the last piece is here. Right on time”. Then the forest rumbles around them, as if it’s taking its last breath, and everything goes dark.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Heya!
> 
> A little background, this series is gonna have 8 works, all of which are connected so you should read em in the order I post em. The first four explain how each boy gets to the clearing, two chapters in each work and one work per ship (except Jeongin and Yedam they fit in... in other ways) and the last four have all the boys together fixing that shit with the greying forest and darkness. I wanna explain cause its a bit confusing in the beginning but I can't say much cause ya know, don't wanna spoil anything. But everything is connected and everything happens for a reason so all question shall be answered in time. 
> 
> I don't have much of a plan for an update schedule but the second part of this work is already written so I'll post it sometime over thanksgiving break. I don't have much of a life outside college, work, and Kpop though so never fear this will get updated somewhat regularly. 
> 
> Alrighty I think that's it... wait lemme plug this YouTube channel I just made where I post edits for fic ideas I have.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdPMPK7eYEjSDnKE5EOvkzQ
> 
> Ok n o w thats it, thanks for checking this out, if your day's just starting then go have a good one, and if you're day's almost over then I hope it was awesome. 
> 
> ✌️✌️✌️


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